Many devices, including laptop computers, smart phones, and other portable computing devices, utilize personal and confidential information in varying applications that a user chooses to install on such devices. Personal and confidential information is sometimes necessary to provide specific services to the user, such as mobile banking and the like. Further, portable computing devices are being used more and more for wallet functionality whereby a user may use the mobile device to pay for goods and services at a point of sale. As this kind of functionality becomes more and more prevalent, the need for security arises in unison to prevent unauthorized users from conducting fraudulent transactions or otherwise misusing personal and confidential information stored in a mobile device.
One conventional solution often employed to prevent such unauthorized use is to use password protection for operating a mobile device. However, sometimes, such password protection is intentionally disabled by the user during times of high use or inadvertently when using the mobile device. Further, if a person accidentally leaves a mobile device behind, the mobile device may have recently been used such that the system has not yet entered into a password-protected mode of operation, e.g., sleep or power-down, such that an unauthorized user may use various applications without the need to enter a password again. These and other problems leave mobile devices susceptible to fraudulent use as more and more people are choosing to use these devices for sensitive tasks.